For Thursday's class (4/17), Please read the first three chapters of Proverbs and skim the rest of the book. Choose three proverbs that you think is a particularly good examples of Hebrew contributions to human wisdom. Explain your choice, and note what makes the Proverb particularly memorable.Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Proverbs (assignment for 4/17)
For Thursday's class (4/17), Please read the first three chapters of Proverbs and skim the rest of the book. Choose three proverbs that you think is a particularly good examples of Hebrew contributions to human wisdom. Explain your choice, and note what makes the Proverb particularly memorable.
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Proverbs 19:1, "Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool." This is a great reminder for everyone. That we need to simply be happy with our life the way it is and not try to complain about what we don't have. It is a piece of advice that if remembered could help all kinds of people be happier in their lives. Proverbs 27:1, "Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.. This is another great piece of advice. That we should not be boastful and make the things we do in our life bigger then they are. The best thing is to do something for someone and not have anyone recognize it. We should simply not be boastful. Proverbs 3:5, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding." This is one of the best pieces of wisdom that comes out of the book. We need to trust God and not our own understanding. This is something that many preachers need to learn. That it is not what they believe that matters, but what the word of the Lord says. All we have to do is trust God and things will turn out as they are supposed to.
ReplyDeleteProverbs 10:1, "A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son brings grief to his mother."
ReplyDeleteThis is similar to the Genesis verse that says women will be punished by pain caused by child-rearing. This one was very memorable to me because, as mothers, we want our child to be good humans. Mothers expect their children to do well all the time, but it's when they are "foolish," it ultimately hurts mom the most. As a mother, this verse brings comfort knowing that, "yes, it is my duty to hold you to a high standard, and yes, it is me who sometimes pays the consequence for foolishness." This verse also reads kind of like a promise that, as a mother, I will be with you through the difficult times as well.
Proverbs 11:4, "Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death."
We can all use this reminder sometimes because we focus so hard on making money and acquiring material things, but they don't make you a better person and cannot save you. We should focus on righteousness rather than $$$ and stuff.
Proverbs 20:1, "Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise."
Another good reminder for us college students. Need I say more?
Proverbs 11:12 He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbour: but a man of understanding holdeth his peace.
ReplyDeleteI've always thought it was a good Idea to hold one's own tongue when you meet someone you dislike. you don't have to be friends with them, but insults don't really do any good.
Proverbs 13:24 He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. This is not just about trying to rationalize beatings or spankings to children. It's talking about any kind of discipline. By doing so you make your child a better person and they will actually come to love and respect you more.
Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.
Pride is something everyone should always be aware of. I've seen many people "fall" and those were most often the ones with a great deal of pride.
Almost all of the verses in proverbs are very good examples of wisdom that can be applied even in today's times. It's very difficult to choose just three. But these are the one's that I identified with most.
Proverbs 13: 1 A wise son pays attention when his father corrects him, but an arrogant person never admits he is wrong. I like this one because it teaches children how to handle the advice from an adult. Too many times in todays society the youth think that adults are trying to run their lives and ridicule them. This is wrong. It is done out of the goodness of a persons heart. If you can correct something and don't have to go through the mistakes that the adult did it is a lesson learned for two people.
ReplyDeleteProverbs 1:7 To have knowledge, you must first have reverence for the Lord. Stupid people have no respect for wisdom and refuse to learn. This one is the very first step to becoming wise. It is something we all should take to heart. Here is a blueprint on how to become wise. Once you have mastered this, bigger and brighter things are on your horizon.
Proverbs 23:12 Pay attention to your teacher and learn all you can. This one is a no brainer. In order to grow one must learn. In order to learn you must gather knowledge from those who have knowledge. The teacher is the one whom can help you along the way. They have the intelligence and life experience to advance your knowledge and build your foundation so you can use that for the good of all.
Proverbs are statements that will help you live your life with greater clarity. It will help you cope with things you are just not sure how to deal with. To me they are life lessons.
Proverbs 2:11 "Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee." In today's world people are much less understanding of situations. This proverb always reminds us to remember that nobody is perfect and that everybody makes mistakes, but that understanding them as a person will get us much farther in life.
ReplyDeleteProverbs 3:5 "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding." The old saying goes that everything happens for a reason. Instead of always trying to figure out the reasoning behind what happened, it's better to just trust in the LORD and know that his plan is working just the way it should for your life.
Proverbs 15:18 "A wrathful man stirreth up strife: but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife." This is a great piece of wisdom in the fact that when people get angry quickly they tend to make irrational hastey decisions that more likely than not they will regret when they come back to reflect on them. But if people are slow to anger they will make better more rational decisions they are likely to uphold for a lengthier period of time.
Proverbs 17:22: "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones."
ReplyDeleteThis is an excellent piece of advice! When a happy person comes into a room, they automatically brighten it; it goes the opposite way when a depressing person comes into the room. This also goes along with the saying, "a smile is contagious." This tells us that even God believes that one of the ways to live a good life is to be happy; being unpleasant will only shorten your life and give you more wrinkles!
Proverbs 22:6: "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."
This is the perfect saying for all of us because, in some way, we are all teachers. Since children learn faster than adults, teaching them the ways of God and a sense of right and wrong, etc. when they are young will give them a longer amount of time to remember and understand these concepts. Also, when you teach a child when they're young, they will be more likely to take it with them and apply it to their adult life.
Proverbs 10:10-31: The Wife of Noble Character
This is a long passage to type, but it is one of my favorites. In these passages, God gives women guidelines on how to be a godly wife and mother. For example, God tells us that this woman works hard to provide for her family to ensure they have a comfortable future. Finally verse 25 tells us, "She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come." This is a memorable verse because it tells women to be strong and honorable and never to worry about the future because God will be by their side.
Proverbs 6:6 You lazy people can learn from watching an ant hill. This is a good one it tells how people should works as a community. Just like ants work together so should the people of God. It is a good way to live in todays society also this is memorable on account it can show how a community can survive by working together.
ReplyDeleteProverb 23:4-5 Give up trying so hard to be rich. Your money flies away before you know it, just like an eagle suddenly taking off. This is passage is good because it tells you not to focus on being rich. If this is all you are focus on you will lose your money not knowing where it went. Focus on other things rather then obtaining wealth. This is memorable because you should not focus on money. It does disappear quickly. If you focus too much on becoming rich you will lose sight of everything else in life.
Proverb23:13-14 Don't fail to correct your children You wont kill them by being firm, and it might even save their lives. This is good wisdom correcting your children when they done wrong is a good thing. It shows them how they should act when around people. When your child acts out around people this reflects on you. Same as if he acts good people]e will respect you and your children. This is memorable on account it is away you should treat your children when they act up correction is okay. You may save their life from a difficult choice they will have to make, and they may remember what they were taught to help make that choice.
1:7 The fear [reverence] of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
ReplyDelete9:10 The fear [reverence] of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
8:13 The fear [reverence] of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward [perverted] mouth, do I hate.
The first two verses state that wisdom first starts by fearing or having reverence for God. The nice thing about the third verse is that it clearly defines what it means to fear the Lord. It is one thing to say the the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom but that saying does little good if one is not sure what "the fear of the Lord" truly means and Proverbs 8:13 does a wonderful job of explaining exactly what it means.
Proverbs 11:21 Though they join forces, the wicked will not go unpunished; But the posterity of the righteous will be delivered.
ReplyDeleteI like this proverb because it implies that the good will always be outnumbered. Yet, despite this, the verse assures us that we will be delivered. This a very hope filled verse.
Proverbs 17:28 Even a fool is counted wise when he holds his peace; When he shuts his lips, he is considered perceptive.
I like this verse because it not only made me chuckle but it also teaches to curb the Impulsive mouth and think before you speak. Even a fool can be wise if they know when they should talk.
Proverbs 20:29 The glory of young men is their strength, And the splendor of old men is their gray head.
I like this proverb because it implies that while the young have strength, the old have authority. I think this also implies that we need to respect our elders as well.
First I chose Proverb 24:5 "A wise man has great power, and a man of knowledge increases strength" and I chose this verse because knowledge is power and the more knowledge you have the stronger you may become through writing, teaching, and life experiences and the ability to give knowledge to those who want to learn.
ReplyDeleteSecond I chose Proverbs 4:27 "Do not get sidetracked, keep your feet from following evil." People often lose sight of what is important. They let ambition or selfishness get in the way. If people kept their focus on what is important, helping and serving others, less and less would suffer for the actions of others.
(Proverbs 2:21-22) "For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it." Pretty sure the Hebrews learned this lesson the hardest. If their experiences give anything, it is the wisdom to know better than to rebel against God.
ReplyDelete(Proverbs 3:5) "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding." The history of the Hebrews is full of stories of how people had to depend on God or a prophet's understanding, often having to put away feelings of confusion because of not understanding. This proverb is a good bit of wisdom because there are many things in the world that cannot be understood with one's one understanding and one must trust a higher power to guide one through.
(Proverbs 9:6) "Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding." Pretty direct advice here. Like it was repeated many times in this book, the best way to be wise is to stop being an idiot.
"A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed." Proverbs 11:25
ReplyDeleteWhy do people volunteer or help others? For many reasons, but everyone would have to agree that it 'feels good' to do so. It is rewarding, and in a sense, refreshing.
"A wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down." Proverbs 14:1
A wise and godly woman makes her home a place of security, comfort, peace and joy, while a foolish and irresponsible woman neglects her home and family.
"Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife." - Proverbs 25:24
This one just made me laugh, but its true! No one wants to be around someone just picking for a fight. Oh poor Solomon with all his wives...
Proverbs 11:2 "When pride comes, then comes disgrace; but wisdom is with the humble." I really liked this proverb as it is relevant in all aspects of life. Being prideful can really bring people down, while being humble can make life so much more meaningful and can help people in their lives.
ReplyDeleteProverbs 12:25 "Anxiety weighs down the human heart, but a good word cheers it up." I think this is also very relevant today since anxiety can really hurt people and bring them down, but the little things in life, someone smiling or an unexpected hello, can really cheer you up and make you feel better.
Proverbs 14:14 "The perverse get what their ways deserve, and the good, what their deeds deserve." This reminds you that as long as you live right and do good deeds and become a functioning member of society, good things will come to you, while those who do bad and are a detriment to society will get what is coming their way. In my eyes it reads as karma, not in the reincarnation sense, but just in general sense of what goes around comes around, which is interesting because I never thought of that being in the Bible.
Proverbs 13:2 "From the fruit of their lips people enjoy good things, but the unfaithful have an appetite for violence." This explains that those who keep the word of God and say positive things to others will in turn be happier. Oppositely, those who have "a sour taste" and negativity in their words will be unhappy.
ReplyDeleteProverbs 22: "Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it." This is a verse of wisdom directed straight at parents. Teaching your children at a young age the difference between right and wrong will result in them doing right later in their life as well.
Proverbs 22:28 " Do not move an ancient boundary stone set up by your ancestors." In this verse, it is clear that the people of the past did certain things for certain reasons. They had motivations that helped them with these decisions. With this, they often have more wisdom than younger generations. By reading this, we need to remember that the decisions made by older generations do not need to be altered and could continue to help us in the future.
Proverbs 16:22 Plans fail for a lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed. I like this because sometimes a plan doesn't fail because it is bad, it fails because we didn't ask the right people for help.
ReplyDeleteProverbs 14:23 All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. This is a good reminder that talk means nothing if you don't put actions behind your words.
Proverbs 27:17 As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. This shows that we as people grow and learn from others around us.
"Be not a witness against thy neighbor without cause; and deceive not with thy lips." Proverbs 24:28
ReplyDelete"A fools mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul." Proverbs 18:7
"Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burnt? Can one go upon hot coals and his feet not be burnt?" SO he that goeth into his neighbors wife, whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent." Proverbs 6:27-29
3-3 I like this one because to me it is telling me that you keep the best traits closest to you. you don't let your best traits as a person escape you because whats left? you aren't going to be that kind person anymore and everyone wont want to be around you then and your fidelity or faithfulness because then you don't have an allegiance to anyone. if that is true then you could become an adulterer
ReplyDelete4-10 receive gods wisdom. ne you do that you will live for a lifetime or more than that, meaning that you will have an after life in the best place ever, heaven. not only that but you will be happy that you did and that you will have a abundant and fruitful one too.
5-3,4 the adulterers speak with the best and most influential words that one can imagine. in reality though they are stepping on thorns of their own lies and deceptions. and because of that becomes bitter and vengeful to the people that are around her that appear happier like the double edged sword and will cut everyone down that she meets in her path. and its true people that are unhappy in their relationship will try to ruin or destroy everyone that has a great and successful relationship with their sweet words and their back stabbing to the friend that they did it to. now that's not a friend.
-Abigail miiller